Ivanchuk, Kasimdzhanov Win In London Grand Prix Round 8

Yesterday, in round 7 of the London Grand Prix, Vassily Ivanchuk and Rustam Kasimdzhanov played a mere 11 moves before agreeing a draw. Well, the rest must have done them good, because they both won their games in round eight - the only players to win in the round.

Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Hikaru Nakamura, making it 3 losses in a row for the American who came into the tournament as top seed, but now lies in clear last place.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov won a queen ending with Michael Adams. It was the first win of the event for Kasimdzhanov, and the second loss in consecutive rounds for Adams.

Leader Boris Gelfand had good chances against Anish Giri, but the game ended drawn. Nevertheless, Gelfand maintains his lead with a score of 5½/8. Tomorrow is rest day, so round 9 is on Monday.

The standings after 8 rounds

#

Name

Fed

Elo

Pts

1

Gelfand, Boris

ISR

2738

5½

2

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar

AZE

2729

5

3

Grischuk, Alexander

RUS

2754

4½

4

Topalov, Veselin

BUL

2752

4½

5

Leko, Peter

HUN

2737

4½

6

Ivanchuk, Vassily

UKR

2769

4

7

Wang, Hao

CHN

2742

4

8

Giri, Anish

NED

2730

3½

9

Dominguez Perez, Leinier

CUB

2725

3½

10

Kasimdzhanov, Rustam

UZB

2684

3½

11

Adams, Michael

ENG

2722

3

12

Nakamura, Hikaru

USA

2783

2½

.

Hikaru Nakamura and Vassily Ivanchuk

.

.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Michael Adams

.

.

Boris Gelfand and Anish Giri

.

.

Leinier Dominguez Perez and Wang Hao

.

.

Peter Leko and Alexander Grischuk

.

.

Veselin Topalov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

.

.The London Grand Prix is the first tournament of the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix series. After London the series moves on to Tashkent, Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin and Paris. Each tournament is a single round-robin featuring 12 out of the 18 players in the Grand Prix, and each player competes in four of the six events. Details of dates and participants can be found here.

The overall winner and runner-up of the Grand Prix qualify for the March 2014 Candidates Tournament.

The schedule for the London Grand Prix:

Arrival & Opening

20th September

1st Round

21st September

2nd Round

22nd September

3rd Round

23rd September

4th Round

24th September

5th Round

25th September

Free Day

26th September

6th Round

27th September

7th Round

28th September

8th Round

29th September

Free Day

30th September

9th Round

1st October

10th Round

2nd October

11th round & Closing

3rd October

Departure

4th October

.

Rounds start at 14:00 local time (13:00 UTC). The time control is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, then an extra 15 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment after the second time control.

Draws can only be claimed for triple-repetition of position, theoretical draws, or 50-move rule.

The official regulations for the 2012 FIDE Grand Prix can be found here.

I'm tired of seeing chess fans whine about draws, honestly. The two winners weren't "rewarded" for making a quick draw. They were rewarded for playing very good chess against GM-level opposition today. Draws are part of the game. This is a round robin, so it's not like quick draws are even very beneficial for the people taking them. We look at their games because we want to, not because they're there to put on a show for us. This isn't the NFL.

I think Naka is a great player. His win vs. Kamsky with black in the US Champ was awesome, in a MUST WIN situation. This experience will serve him good. Others recently passed such nightmares: Ivanchuk in Reggio Emilia, Giri in WaZee, Morozevich in TalM. Is part of professional chess to regain confidence for a successful comeback.

The two guys who took a controversial extra day off with an eleven move draw are the only two guys who win the next day. This is bad for chess. They were rewarded for violating the spirit of the game. And poor Naka who plays so dynamically, suffers another loss to one of the miscreants.

Its clear that Naka needs to give the endgame and its transition from the Middlegame more respect and study. Players also are avoiding playing dynamic positions against him and playing it safe. His opening play lacks depth in this competition and hes wasting a lot of energy improvising and trying to turn technical positions into dynamic ones where his creative energy is superior. His desire to win is clouding his judgement. His loss against Wang Hao was allowing him to change the pawn structure in his favor. I think his Ego got in the way. He wanted to get revenge after losing his previous games against him and that cost him. I think it also has to do with the way he lost before because he lost in dynamic positions which are Naka's specialty. Once Naka's play in Technical positions improves he will be great like Carlsen.

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